Monday, August 11, 2008

The Russians Do It Again In the South of France

The children will recall that in mid-July there were rumors and reports that property crazy Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich was in the process of buying the legendary estate in the South of France called La Leopolda.

Now, some of the better newspapers in London are reporting that filthy rich widow and international socialite Lily Safra has sold her cream colored confection and its entensive gardens for a mind numbing £390,000,000 to some Russian billionaire who wishes to remain anonymous. Pleeze.

Your Mama would want to remain anonymous too if we were foolish enough to pay £390,000,000 for a damn house, a number that our bejeweled abacus tells us converts to a blistering and unimaginable $753,216,240.

We are not impressed. Actually, we're sorta embarrassed for the anonymous billionaire. But then again, it was Your Mama the man was trying to impress with his beyond extravagant purchase.

If the 'poor' russian billionaire-oligach have that kind of money to burn, why noy buy South Ossetia and Abkasia from Putin and his pseudo-president? Then the fool could give it back to the Georgians. The billionaire stole all of the money under the privatisation of Russia (former: the ugly comunist Soviet Union). Oligach could then be a modern day Robin Hood - Steal from a poor comunist country and give to a poor democratic nation

The thing with the wealthy Russians is that once they all move to an area all other nationalities leave! I have nothing against any Russian but collectively they are not liked ...

Courchevel 1850 in the French Alps has always been a retreat for wealthy Europeans but the past few years they've all moved on due to the Russians taking over & making the town down market ...

Forte Dei Marmi the Italian beach resort in Tuscany was always a retreat for wealthy Italians - once again the past few years Russians have taken over & all the Italians have left for more low key resorts ...

The same thing is happening on the Riviera, many families who have been vacationing there for decades are going elsewhere ...

St Moritz in the Swiss alps has banned Russians from buying property - though I'm not quite sure of the exact details ...

London is totally overrun by them - as it's their home base or at least their families home base ...

I'm just wondering how long it's going to be until they start to takeover Aspen, Telluride, Nantucket, Marthas Vineyard, Palm Beach etc ...

Anyway, anyone who pays $753M for a home ... well, more the fool them ... especially when other wealthy Russians on the Riviera make do with a $100M home!

Sometimes I think these Russian Bazillionnaires like the world to know they can splash out hundreds of millions of dollars on a house. Which completely confuses me as to why one would want to remain anonymous.

Russians are just white niggers with money, end of story, they are rude, difficult to deal with, a pain in the ass and they love to shoot, either to kill or put you in the hospital. I am russian and I am telling you how it is, for some reason we were taught to think that we are all superior to the poor and anyone who is not russian.

The richest russians are only rich because less than 2000 have gotten educated and managed to steal gas, oil and other industries from the people through violence and intelligent trickery.

The rich know this will not last, the reason they are out there buying up all kinds of real estate for obscene amounts is so that when their oil, gas companies go back to the control of the people (government), which is happening as we speak( war in georgia is a start ) their wealth will dive to zero and yet they will still be able to sustain their luxurious lifestyles as they sell an estate every 10 years or so until they pass away.

"In 1999, Edmond Safra, a sufferer of Parkinson's disease, perished in a criminal fire at their apartment in Monaco. Lily Safra survived, as she was saved from the fire by the police. An American nurse, Ted Maher, was arrested under suspicion of starting the fire, and was convicted of the crime in 2002. He claimed that he had started the fire to carry out a daring rescue, in order to increase his standing in the Safra family's eyes, but that he lost control of the fire. The facts and assertions about the events have been scrutinized by several media "mystery solvers" including 60 Minutes and by Dominick Dunne in Vanity Fair."-wiki

Why does everyone hate the russians seems a little ridiculous. Yes a lot are very nouveau riche but I like that you need to see them to mix up the wealthy crowd. Plently on Rodeo Drive mixed with all the nationalities.

Uh - hardly! ... many European families with very famous surnames [that you'd recognise] & with billions in the bank have been leaving Courchevel, Lake Como, South of France ... It has nothing to do with jealousy, it's that once the Russians arrive everything goes slightly trashy ... Flashing money around is deemed fairly vulgar in most of the Western world ... & the classless/vulgar comments are not solely for the Russians - just look back at the archives regarding the Saperstein [sp?] mansion in LA - owned by a texan!

Serge,Russians are just white niggers...How incredibly uncouth to even mention the word ni**er.Leave the derogatory name calling to other websites that are interested in it.I personally thought this one pertained to real estate.

Well to the ultra euro snob of old money vs. the new. A war they have been losing rapidly for years. Where are all the old money families going? If they ran them off from the traditional spots st.mortiz,st.tropez,monte carlo,nice where are they going now???

Just looked at the house on virtual globetrotting. Why Why Why would anyone pay that for the home. its next to a low grade apartment building and the neighborhood is okay with some an i mean some large homes but i would def not pay for that house I was expecting all out fabulosity not beautiful grounds surronded by mediocre surroundings.

Look the name nigger has already lost it's negative definition, now it has so many different meanings, everyone, black, white, chinese, philipino, gays they all call each other nigger, but if you are white, asian, latin, you do not call a black man nigger, they will still lose it and the funny thing is that word lets some ignorant idiots end up in prison, jail or worse, over this retarded word, it is just a word that has been used to death.

The word that is as bad as nigger is monday, or vinegar

now with that said, us russians live in our own little world, we travel in large packs, we are loud, we are crude and although we are civil to each other up to a point if an outsider is trying to tell us what to do we will come down on them like a pack of wolves and fuck them up very bad, we are the best out there in the pimp game, extortion game and that is the reason so many non russians are leaving these tourist destinations that we migrate to and we are glad to see them go, we are have been locked up in cages for decades and now with our new found wealth we are going crazy, we are gods, hence the term "white nigger".

serge, with all due respect, you aren't going to make ANY friends around here by continually using a word that IS considered VERY OFFENSIVE in the US. I could care less what Russians think of the word but PLEASE stop using it here. Your posts are short lived anyway as Mama will remove them when she gets settled into a hotel with a G&T and WiFi.

nigger, nigga, what is the big deal ? even 12 year old white girls are calling themselves that now, well they also use the word bitch

they are all words of respect and love, hey the hiphop artists are the cause of it, and now it is a harmless word among kids, of course they do not hang around blacks calling them that, then again I now understand why jews hang with jews, russians hang with russians, asians hang with asians and blacks hangs with blacks, it is safer that way.

I wonder what they will do when they find out the new nigger word is monday ? or vinegar ? I wonder if that will ever catch on ?

Learn to quit while you're ahead –– no amount of rationalizing or self-justification is going to undo the fact that you're just plain wrong to use that word in public, where you don't know who your audience is.

no anon it is not average joe he is in europe I have not seen him anywhere on these posts in quite a while and besides he is always complaining about how he cannot buy any homes and that they need to come down. This is a different person entirely

well I am half black and half white which makes me a fine ass black guy that can get the bitches with the snap of my finger and having money is even better, oh I forgot to tell you that my parents marriage was arranged, my mum, oil family from africa and my dadda from oil family in russia, a marriage made in heaven.

If I had billions of dollars, I would, consider paying an exorbitant sum maybe for one of the Vanderbilt mansions in Newport, or Hyde Park, or Biltmore House in NC, but that's about it...the Russian's are paying these sums for houses not to show off but because they desperately want to have bases outside of Russia for when it falls back into a dictatorship under Putin and they all have to flee to avoid the consequences of their actions since the Cold War ended...

that is exactly why my dad and his friends are buying up real estate in london, they know it will stay up for years to come and if it falls they are connected so deep into europeans secret societies that they can force their highend market to stay up, NY and LA not so much.

From the 9:46 post forward, "serge" has proved to be the same troll that disrupts this board under a variety of names. Time for the children to ignore and not respond to him and he will hopefully go back to his sky is falling blog.

The display of so much wealth and money seems to have brought out the worst in many posters. That said, I read on one site that Bill Gates bought this place at one time for about 75 million. I presume he sold it for more afterward, but he should have held on and really cleaned up. Wonder when Lily Safra got it. She used to live with her husband in Monte Carlo until he became toast. Did she take the pickings and buy this place?

BTW it's kinda nice to see ex-Commie Russians making DeGeneres, etc. and Winfrey look like poor cheapskates who have to make do with humble abodes. As the world turns.

Sorry, my error. The place Safra sold was the ex-abode of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, not La Leopolda. And the Windsor abode is much less impressive, although quite enough even so. Therefore the price paid does seem way beyond reason. Even for a billionaire. Maybe the Duke and Duchess's ghosts still inhabit it, so it is really something special. Suppose?

There are two properties being talked about here: the Villa Leopolda and the Chateau de la Croe. Which one has been purchased for the ridiculous price? La Leopolda does not fit the description of "cream colored" while the Chateau de la Croe does. Which one belonged to Lily Safra?

There are two properties being talked about here: the Villa Leopolda and the Chateau de la Croe. Which one has been purchased for the ridiculous price? La Leopolda does not fit the description of "cream colored" while the Chateau de la Croe does. Which one belonged to Lily Safra?

Villa Leopolda is the one that sold for 390M pounds. Chateau de la Croe was purchased by Roman Abramovich a while ago for ~20M Euros.

Mama,

You and the rest of your readers should see the property for sale a stone's throw due south of Villa Leopolda. It's a smaller house and plot, but much less gaudy and better views of the bay. Only 70 million Euros.

That 70 million is on the market for a looong time . it does not look like 30.000 sqft like the realtor says. 55 million tops. My fav right now is an ALMOST 3000 sqft house in Cap-d'Ail for 4 million Euro. Amazing view and 5 minutes from Monte Carlo Casino.

All this malicious drivel has probably driven even Mama away. She is probably swinging along the open road giving much appreciated tummy-rubs to Beverly. I hope she gets the big electronic eraser out soon.

this place is obviously not worth it's most recent aelling price. This was simply Simone wanting to hold a record, and ensuring it is not beat within his lifetime.

Do you really think this buy would ever find anyone else to pay almost a billion dollars for an estate?

I do hope the buyer had many billions of dollars, because if this is someone worth 2-3 billion dollars, he just threw 1/3 to a 1/2 of his net worth down the toilet. He will never recooperate his purchase price if chooses to or is forced to sell.

Oh, really Average Joe? You must be a billionaire then. Someone so fabulously wealthy must be on the Forbes list, and all over the internet. Furthermore, you must be very powerful, and unafraid of all us peasants, so why don't you tell us who you are, give us your real name, so we can verify your immense wealth and power.

I love how people make ridiculous claims over the internet, trying to impress anonymous readers, while being totally anonymous themselves. Are these delusions of grandeur so gratifying?

My wealth is secret. I don't even tell my mother! I have to change my own bed sheets so she doesn't look under the mattress. I would be at the top of the Forbes list but it is a joke! I can buy and sell this whole country!!!!

I have to go now. I will be sailing around the world in my 1000 foot yacht with 7 playmates. One for each day of the week. You wish you were me.

It's refreshing to know that Average Joe is such a douchebag that despite his alleged wealth, he still both lives with his mother and apparently cannot afford staff to change his sheets...I also like that despite his allegedly being in St. Tropez ignoring this blog, the second it is implied that douchebag Serge is him (though his name is never mentioned), he miraculously pops up to defend himself using his other alias...Douchebag is the only word that comes to mind...and Mama, can't you track this douchebag's IP address or something and ban him once and for all? He is really ruining your blog.

FYI I have a IP multiplier as I am sure many others do in my line of work so tracking IP addresses are futile

Although I think 1 billion is a bit much for 5 acres of dirt, I have heard that russia is going back to communism or dictatorship and these russian billionaires will lose their income from oil, steel, gas industries

so.....

the rich russians are buying up real estate in europe because they can keep the prices up by the manipulation of local governments.

make no mistake these rich russians have an army of 2000 gangsters that can keep everyone in line in another country, but they are no match against 50000000 in the military which as you can see the BEAR unleashes on those that who not want to cooperate, I only pray that the BEAR does not decide it is time to feast on Europe anytime soon.

The only country that would stand a chance going up against Russia is China

Think PUTIN bought it... He a dictator now - so why throw 750M away on a lavish villa in a democracy?Other most likely Russian buyers could be Oleg Deripaska, Alexei Mordashov or Mikhail Fridman. - All Russian gangsters.Forbes list of world billionaires is worth nothing... This year list did not include Mr. Maersk McKinney Moeller, who controlles a cool 60% of A.P. Moller-Maersk Group (company controles +10% of all container transport in the world and has a huge oilbusiness as well) - in 2007 forbes estimated his wealth to be $ 1,8 billion - Europan medias report a wealth of more than $ 30 billion...

Wow! You guys crack me up!It is so true when they say "when the cat is away the mice will play" Someone is in for a lickin when Momma gets back. C'mon guys does it really matter who lives where with however much money or not. We all enjoy and love this blog lets just stick to the subject at hand Real Estalking. Be kind to each other and remember that we are all human beings. Smile all!!!

It's just about time for Mama to reappear and give us some cagey details about her upcoming TV show. I am hoping the sensors won't dumb her down and dull the edge. I personally hope Aunt Mary will appear as the talented sidekick to Mama's Carol Burnette.

The real average joe has been confined to a padded room and is heavily sedated. I'm sorry but I can not tell you the name of the hospital, he only went to Ibiza in his head. We're hoping that the new medication will enable him to lead a normal lfe later this year. Very sorry for his outbursts here, he also seems to think that his name is Serge sometimes.

It's a shame some people are so stupid they can't even keep their lies straight, and so mentally ill they cannot corral all of their multiple personalities...all I know is, if I were in St Tropez or Ibiza, I'd be out in the sun scoring chicks, not sitting on my computer making up multiple personalities to ramble on a blog several times a day...Average Joe, you are correct, you (and Serge, and Average Joe }, and whatever other names you go by, are indeed the definition of a douchebag...why you think you have any credibility at all on this blog is a testimony in itself to your ignorance of what a loser you are...please leave this kind blog alone for people who can speak truthfully and actually have something clever and Creative to say...

LGB..........Now, where the stable boy diddling took place would be worth 750,000,000. What a magnificent property! Ok Mama.......we get it........we miss you, now leave us a dropping and put an end to the anarchy.

------------------------------Reporter Ann Brenoff of the LA Times Hot Property section is reporting that Ed McMahon (poor, poor Ed McMahon) is being saved from eviction by Donald Trump. Fuck, what? Yeah, we said Donald Trump. "Trump said he stepped in because helping McMahon "would be an honor." His plan is to buy the home from the lender and lease it back to McMahon."---------------------------------

We now return to the mental instability that is Average Joe posting back and forth to himself in an effort to draw attention his direction.

1: A piece of equipment for douching: a bag for holding the water or fluid used in douching (vaginal irrigation, rinsing of the vagina)

2: Douche bag, or simply douche, is considered to be a pejorative term in Australia, the Philippines, Ireland, the United States, Canada and New Zealand. The slang usage of the term dates back to the 1960s. The metaphor of identifying a person as a douche is intended to associate a variety of negative qualities, specifically arrogance and malice.